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Pakistan Defence Budget

ejaz007

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Defence budget likely to go up by Rs 130 bn
Monday, February 22, 2010
By Mehtab Haider

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s defence budget is all set to increase by, at least, Rs 130 billion in the wake of the ongoing military operation against the militants in the tribal areas as well as on account of increased salaries of military personnel, paving the way for achieving a broader consensus with the IMF for jacking up the fiscal deficit target up to 5.1 per cent of the GDP from the earlier envisaged target of 4.9 per cent.

By end-June 2010, the defence expenditure may go up to Rs 205 billion on account of the military operation as well as increased salaries of armed forces personnel. For the time being, it is projected during the talks with the IMF that the defence expenditure will be increased in the range of Rs 130 billion.

The power sector subsidies, the sources said, was still the unresolved issue between the donors and the government. However, the finance wizards conveyed to the IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development that they would not pass on the benefits of decreased prices of furnace oil in monthly fuel adjustment in order to recover arrears and maintaining this year subsidy within the desired limit of Rs 55 billion.

A senior official of the Gilani government, who was a part of the recently-concluded talks between Pakistan and the IMF at Dubai, confided to The News on Sunday that the fiscal target was allowed to grow due to increased expenditures on security as well as rising subsidy amounts during the current fiscal year.

The government, he said, had allocated Rs 342.9 billion in the shape of defence allocation. The salaries of armed forces personnel, who are taking part in the military operation, were increased from July 1, 2009 while others’ salaries were jacked up from January 2010. “The salary component of the military will increase the allocation by Rs 70 to 80 billion while non-salary component will up the allocation by Rs 100 billion in the wake of the ongoing military operation against the militants,” said the official.

The IMF, the sources said, allowed jacking up the fiscal deficit target on the basis of the assumption that Islamabad would be able to get the desired external inflows of $1.4 billion from the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP) besides getting releases from the USA during the remaining four months of the current fiscal year.

“It was smooth sailing for Pakistan as they agreed to all our projections without raising any major question,” said one of the officials, who was a part of the delegation during the review talks with the IMF.

The expenditure side was readjusted massively as the government conceded to scaling down the allocation of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) by around Rs 150 billion while defence and subsidies allocation would be revised upward in order to maintain the overall fiscal deficit target of 5.1 per cent of the GDP.

Before going to hold the review talks with the IMF in Dubai, the sources said that Pakistan worked out the fiscal deficit target in the range of 5.6 per cent of the GDP. But on the basis of external inflows from the FoDP and the USA, the IMF agreed to increase the fiscal deficit target to 5.1 per cent of the GDP.

Now the IMF staff will prepare a report on the basis of discussions held with the Pakistani authorities, which will be tabled before its executive board in its meeting expected to be held in Washington DC on March 24, 2010 in which the next tranche of $1.2 billion for Pakistan was likely to be approved.

Talking to The News on Sunday, Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin said the increased expenditures on security and subsidies paved the way for jacking up the fiscal deficit target to 5.1 per cent of the GDP for 2009-10. He also said that Pakistan would achieve the GDP growth target of 3.3 per cent in the wake of rebound of manufacturing sector as well as improved performance of agriculture output, especially the wheat crop. However, he said the inflation target would be missed out and revised upward to 12 per cent against the initial target of 9.5 per cent for 2009-10.

Defence budget likely to go up by Rs 130 bn
 
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Thats almost 45% increase.. I am glad we dont have a Riaz Haq on our side of the border or he would have been going nuts with this ;)

Jokes apart, is there a figure on how much of this is towards increased salaries and how much towards the operations in NWFP?
 
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Let's hope that the increase is only for the next year and then we can continue towards a budget focused on social welfare. Hopefully, we will have a much stable economy by then and this mess in on the western border will have been fixed as well
 
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Govt to increase defence budget by Rs100bn

LAHORE: The government has decided to increase the country’s defence budget by Rs 100 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, a private TV channel reported on Monday. The reason given by the government for the budget increase was ‘heavy expenditure in the war on terror’. According to documents relating to the defence budget increase, Islamabad had initially earmarked Rs 343 billion for defence spending last year. But in the face of expenses incurred in the war against terrorism, the defence budget was increased to Rs 378 billion, the channel reported. The document states that the Rs 70 billion increase in the defence budget was necessitated by increase in the salaries and allowances of the armed forces’ personnel. The channel reported that extra funds were needed for the purchase of necessary equipment for the armed forces. daily times monitor

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
 
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THE THEATER THAT WE PAKISTANI LIVE IN, WE HAVE TO EXCEPT IT.

I CAN COMPROMISE ON MY LIFE STYLE BUT NOT ON PAKISTAN'S SECURITY. :pakistan:
 
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YES, its the price of or tribute to aur myrters?
WHAT ABOUT lifting the economy? which will give more profits? this will do only oneway expense isnt it? a very thin chance of profits?
 
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wo kare to pyar hum karein to balatkar...something like this...ain't it..?
 
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Pakistan is facing tremendous pressure in the budget 2009-10 because of the massive hike in defence and security related expenditures. “The Rs 343 billion allocation was originally made for defence which swelled up by about 96 percent to Rs 613 billion, as during Musharraf regime agreement to purchase some aircrafts were inked,” a senior official at Ministry of Finance told.

“That’s why the incumbent regime is paying Rs. 150 billion for the said aircrafts for Pakistan Armed Forces during this fiscal year. This amount was not included in the defense budget for 2009-2010.” “The government has so far spent Rs 120 billion for Swat and South Waziristan (SW)operation which was also not included in the budget. So much so the government this time will spend huge amount of Rs 770 billion in the head of debt servicing. The said main factors have forced the government to widen its budget deficit to 5.1 percent against the target of 4.9 per cent earlier earmarked in budget 2009-2010.”
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Defence budget up by 96pc | Pakistan Daily
 
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wo kare to pyar hum karein to balatkar...something like this...ain't it..?

No it is not like that. Their is a little difference between rise defense budget rise for national security and jingoism or arms race.

:azn:
 
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what is current defence budget of pakistan(in $). and what was it's previous defence budget. please give amt. in $. Is this amt. also include expenditure of swat and other anti-terroism operation.
 
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